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SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft is so confident it has the Internet’s best email service that it is
about to spend at least $30 million to send its message across the U.S.

The barrage began yesterday when Microsoft’s twist on email, Outlook.com, escalated an assault
on rival services from Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., AOL Inc. and a long list of Internet service
providers.

Email remains a key battleground, even at a time when more people are texting.

People still regularly check their inboxes, albeit increasingly on their smartphones. The
recurring email habit provides Internet companies a way to keep people coming back to websites.
Frequent visits and personal identification are two of the keys to selling ads, the main way most
websites make money.

That’s why Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have been retooling their email services in recent
months.

After keeping Outlook.com in a “preview” phase since July 31, Microsoft Corp. is ready to
welcome new users and is financing what it believes to be the biggest marketing blitz in the
history of email. Outlook.com will be featured in ads running on primetime TV, radio stations,
websites, billboards and buses. Microsoft expects to spend somewhere between $30 million to $90
million on the Outlook campaign, which will run for at least three months.

The Outlook ads will overlap with an anti-Gmail marketing campaign that Microsoft launched
earlier this month. The “Scroogled” attacks depict Gmail as a snoopy service that scans the
contents of messages to deliver ads related to topics being discussed.

The Gmail ads are meant to be educational while the Outlook campaign is motivational, said
Dharmesh Mehta, Outlook.com’s senior director.

“We are trying to push people who have gotten lazy and comfortable with an email service that
may not be all that great and help show them what email can really do for them,” Mehta said.

By Microsoft’s own admission, Hotmail had lost the competitive edge that once made it the world’s
largest email service. The lack of innovation left an opening for Google to exploit when it
unveiled Gmail nearly nine years ago.

Gmail is now the industry leader, although estimates on its popularity vary.